(Law Officer) A homeless St. Paul man who told police he’d been driving around all day with others in a stolen vehicle while smoking meth and heroin prior to a crash that killed one of the passengers had been bailed out not once, but twice, in recent weeks by the Minnesota Freedom Fund in two other felony drug cases.
Devin Markus Chase, 31, has been charged in Ramsey County District Court with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide involving gross negligence and operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of a controlled substance, and one count of auto theft following last week’s crash that resulted in the death of 30-year-old Randi Lee Stone.
Charges say St. Paul police responded just after 4 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 20 to a two-vehicle crash at Cretin Avenue North and Mississippi River Boulevard where it appeared a Nissan Rogue and a Nissan Altima had collided head-on.
The first officer on the scene found Chase on the ground a foot away from the Rogue’s driver’s side door which was shut. The officer spoke to witnesses at the scene who said two Asian females had fled from the passenger side of the Rogue.
Officers found Stone in the Rogue’s backseat on the driver’s side in a pool of blood. She was not wearing a seatbelt and it appeared her head had struck a pillar on the driver’s side between the driver’s and passenger’s doors. She was pronounced dead by medics at the scene.
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Chase has a lengthy criminal history of at least 24 convictions which stretch the length of his entire adult life. His convictions include three felonies for burglary, theft, and domestic assault, as well as several other domestic assault or abuse convictions, and multiple driving after revocation, counterfeiting currency, theft, receiving stolen property, and drug convictions.
The new criminal complaint against Chase also noted that he has a prior gross misdemeanor conviction on criminal vehicular operation in Anoka County District Court in which he was involved in a hit-and-run while under the influence of alcohol.
